SESSION 20 — Call & Response: The Ekphrastic Poem 2

Photo by David Pisnoy on Unsplash

Discussion:

• Ekphrasis is classically understood as “a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art”, such as a painting or sculpture.

• In contemporary creative practice, ekphrasis refers more broadly to one art form meaningfully responding to another, not limited to visual art. For instance, poems responding to music or film are widely accepted examples.

• This poem was written in response to R&B artist’s Jill Scott’s rendition of the jazz standard “Good Morning Heartache”.
  Listen here.

• What aspects of Scott’s performance does the poem highlight or explore? Does it zoom out and look at the landscape beyond the actual performance—It’s historical context, culture, etc.? How does it do so?

Jill Scott Sings “Good Morning Heartache”

Woman voluptuous,
tall in her negritude,
belts out worlds of sound,
swirls of cocoa and molasses.

Her voice,
loamy and laden with pain,
heavy with the strain of centuries,
floods the hall—
a Mississippi
overflowing its banks,
sweeping all away in its glory.

Woman voluptuous,
tall in her negritude,
wears a gardenia in her hair.

But as she sways,
sashays,
ebbs and flows,
she makes it clear.

There is no wilting here.
The Lady sings the blues
not the other way around.

Writing Prompt:

• Write a poem about a piece of music that moves you.

• You can describe its effect on you, explore its cultural context, or use it as a launchpad to write about something else.

• Or maybe you will head in the opposite direction, start somewhere else and end up at the music. It’s up to you. Enjoy the process.